The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu has stated that the federal government has approved $2.7 billion for the completion of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline.
Speaking to newsmen, the minister said the pipeline is to enhance movement of gas from the southern corridor to the north, increase power generation and enable utilization of gas up into the hinterlands.
Kachikwu said: “One of the things we have suffered is the reaping of gas. We presently have trapped power, trapped gas all in the southern corridors that is going nowhere because of lack of infrastructure.
“So, that has now been awarded. You remember that was partially done, this is a contract that has lasted over 13 years, so we got approval for that today and so that is going forward very nicely.”
He said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) also “awarded a contract to a consortium for the Odidi pipeline from the Warri and the Southern marshlands which will move the additional gas we have been able to produce through the NDDC, about 364 million cubic meters of gas to be fed into the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano pipeline.
“It is all part of gas gathering mechanism. So, the two taken together basically will boost gas delivery into Nigeria. Gas delivery for power has begun for the first time to take very definitive steps towards the movement of Nigeria from being a crude nation into a gas environment.”
